New age, new start.

So in about 45 minutes I would have been on the earth for 28 years and I feel it's time for a change. I want to take my gym experience up a notch.

I want to build up a little muscle but I want to look toned and tight, what's the best advice you guys can give?

I currently work out 4 times a week, doing cardio (treadmill and elliptical for an hour - 1.5 hours) and weights for about an hour each time I go. I currently use the Beach body work out which has two days of resistance workouts with super sets and 3 days of cardio....but I enjoy cardio so I do more.

I've recently being getting into long sessions of cardio which keep my heart rate at around 155-160bpm for the majority of the session but I've heard good and bad things about HIIT, do the pros outweigh the cons?

Also my upper body strength is pretty week, I can bench about 35kg 3 sets of 10-12 reps but towards the end I'm flagging, pull up are really hard I can do 3 with good form and another 3 that look sloppy. Any advice for exercises that can build more strength so I can build muscle.

Living in Japan means I don't have access as easily to certain products, I.e. whole-wheat pasta, bread or brown rice (they LOVE the white) so any advice on other forms of carbs which will help me gain a bit of mass but not put on too much weight.Also protein wise should I start using tofu as a meat substitute a few times a week? The meats out here tend to be a little fatty.

I've always been a gym novice but want to really start getting more outta my time there, so any and all advice is appreciated

Well first of all, Happy Birthday. Secondly, read up on hypertrophy and then get ready to eat. Your current workout seems fine for maintenance, but you want to "take [your] gym experience up a notch" so you are looking for gains, we need food for you.

Concerning HIIT, the pros do outweight the cons but if you are "addicted" to cardio, you are going to have a hard time seeing the gains you want. You should make a commitment for a month of trying something really different.

Cheers for the advice, and the happy birthday, so I read up a bit and I think I'm going to try gradually increasing the weight and reducing the reps.

I'm a little nervous about increasing the amount of food but reducing the length of cardio, I don't want to avoid putting on fat and turning it into muscle, I'd rather head straight for lean muscle.

Any advice or examples of foods I should be trying to track down in my local Japanese supermarket? As I said before brown rice and wheats products are pretty scarce so maybe fish or vegetables that can help promote muscle growth would be a better option.

If you want to head straight to lean muscle, try the Real Jock 12-week lean muscle program. It is pretty decent.

As for eating, it is a double-edge sword because you need the carbs to maintain such a high level of cardio; on the other, you want to change this.

As chicken, beef, and pork won't be the best cuts/low-fat try getting lean fishes, eating that and coupling it with a 1-2 times a week tofu use. Tofu is great, but I would rather your protein intake mainly come from an animal (meal-wise). If you supplement it with some powder you should have no trouble.

if you are doing the cardio because you like cardio that´s fine, but you need to know it´s fighting against your desire to get bigger. in fact a 2 1/2 hour work out is not going to get you bigger, it´s training for stamina.

HIIT is great if you do cardio just for utilitarian reasons (fat loss, heart fitness). It´s not so fun

So since it looks like I'm stuck with white rice as my source of carbs should I do more cardio than the lean body work out suggests? 30 minutes twice a week and a long walk doesn't seem like it will count for much.